Posted on 03/19/2011 10:41:52 AM PDT by RnMomof7
WASHINGTON (BP)--Washington state reported 51 deaths from physician-assisted suicide in 2010, its first full year after legalizing the practice.
In 2009, at least 36 deaths by means of assisted suicide were reported, but those occurred in less than 10 months.
The Washington Department of Health reported March 10 that 87 prescriptions were written in 2010 for a lethal dose of drugs to be used in assisted suicides. The deaths of 72 recipients of the prescriptions were reported, but 21 of the recipients passed away without using the drugs.
The two leading concerns expressed by those receiving the fatal prescriptions were a loss of autonomy, 90 percent, and a declining ability to take part in activities that make life enjoyable, 87 percent.
Margaret Dore, a Seattle lawyer who specializes in elder care, said the law legalizing assisted suicide is "a recipe for abuse."
"Washington’s report, which does not even address whether administration of the lethal dose was voluntary, does nothing to alleviate this concern," Dore wrote in a LifeNews.com analysis. "The information provided is inherently unreliable."
Two others states -- Oregon and Montana -- have legalized assisted suicide. Oregon reported a record 65 deaths by assisted suicide in 2010. It has recorded 525 such deaths since the practice was legalized in 1997. Montana has not released a report for 2010, its first year after legalization.
Meanwhile, the Idaho Senate approved legislation March 11 making clear that assisted suicide is against the law, The Idaho Statesman reported. Senators voted 31-2 for the bill. The House of Representatives has yet to act on the proposal.
(Excerpt) Read more at bpnews.net ...
True. In a free society, we could legally obtain the means, consultation, and assistance without fear of prosecution. But it has been a long time since we’ve been free.
Jump out of a window. No reason to corrupt the medical system.
I take it you are not disabled. Try it sometime and tell me how a person who is bedridden with intractable pain, lack of mobility, and progressive degeneration can go run out to get a car going, or buy a hibachi for an enclosed space, or order some potassium cyanide, or leach the nicotine out of cigarettes, or climb over the railing at the bridge, or tie a rope atop a tall beam, or even pull the trigger on a .357 Magnum and leave a nice mess.
Please, do tell.
And please, go to the pharmacy and tell them to give you what you want. Ask for some secobarbital sodium and not to get the government involved in the medical system. Ask the government to stay out of your business when you post online and ask for information on how to most effectively end the pain. Insist that it’s none of the government’s business and announce the time and place of your death so you may say goodbye to loved ones in peace, managing your inevitable death instead of letting it letting your remaining days slide off in horrific agony.
Yes, it’s none of the government’s business.
And so, yes, I agree with you that the government should be out of the medical system so people can freely get any drug they want without a prescription (except for public health dangers like overuse of antibiotics).
Oh, and you can kill yourself in many ways without lethal recipe from the medical system...sure...
...and you can express yourself in many ways without the Internet, so it’s okay for the government to shut it down, burn your newspapers, kill talk radio, etc.
If you think the medical system doesn’t already offer assistance to those in need, you’re rather naïve. If you think physicians should continue to be prosecuted for helping their patients, at their patients’ wishes, you are rather sick.
I don’t think killing patients is “helping” especially if they aren’t already dying. Killing healthy depressed people is the next step I guess.
That's a sure way for a Doctor to get thrown in jail.
I do understand why shotguns are so common in accidental deaths. When I was a kid, it wasn’t at all unusual for older men to go out hunting rabbits or whatever. Quite frequently, three or four times a year, one of the men came back to town in the Coroners truck. Occasionally, I’d learn later that the guy had a terminal illness. Frequently, they were survivors of WWI, so I would think it had to be an accident because these guys were very familiar with weapons. Suicide just didn’t cross my mind.
As I said, there are many ways to kill yourself. I’m not against that, it is a personal choice. You face the consequences if there are any on the other side by yourself. The car in a garage thing was just one way. Pills and booze is another. A paper bag over your head is another, you just slowly fall asleep. You don’t have to be 100% mobile to do that. Most disabled people could do it.
What I am against is state sanctioning and having Physicians knowingly write lethal Rx’s. It is a dangerous precedent. At some point, and you know how the slippery slope works, they will tell you it’s your turn to die.
I wish the slippery slope didn’t exist because a lot of laws could be written and enforced with only the original intent. But reality is different. You may think you are helping the disabled by giving them choice, but you will eventually be giving everyone a death sentence including disabled people who do not wish to die. Only the connected and wealthy could escape the government death order.
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